By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
Does it surprise you that your online instructor is able to relate to you so closely as an individual learner? It sometimes feels almost like a tutor relationship. It's much closer and more effective than the traditional classroom, where it is typical to see a professor holding forth to a large classroom, or a streaming media "talking head" beaming out through your monitor. In an online course, your instructor has the ability to establish a high-quality one-on-one relationship with all members of the course, as well as an impersonal larger relationship with all the members as a whole.
How does this happen? Does you instructor clone herself? Does she create an automated avatar-bot that interacts you as though it were your instructor?
The truth is that the nature of the learning space and the way that you interact are what make the difference.
What you will see are one-on-one relationships crop up simultaneously. These are "dyadic" relationships, and they work. In fact, one of the most remarkable attributes of online courses is, as opposed to face-to-face courses, the fact that the instructor is able to establish a productive and highly functioning set of one-on-one dyadic relationships with the individuals in the course, as well as with the group as a whole.
Let's step back a moment and see how this works. As you take the course, as a student, you'll notice that you have essentially two levels of relationships with the instructor. First, there is the sense of protected anonymity you have as a group member. You engage as a faceless group member when you read announcements and posts in the discussion area and interact with course content.
On the other hand, there is the relationship you have when you interact in e-mails, assessments, and one-on-one chats, and when you interact in small groups with targeted, personalized.
What makes a dyadic relationship a good one? How does it happen? Why are these dyadic relationships so important.
The are important because the relationship you establish with your instructor will determine how you feel about the course, and the confidence that you have. Establishing trust and maintaining an atmosphere of fairness are vital.
It does not happen immediately, though. It's a step-by-step process that occurs in stages.
- Stage 1: Instructors and learners (leaders and followers), as strangers, test each other. What behaviors are most comfortable?
- Stage 2: Instructors and eLearners define what they are supposed to do. This helps shape and refine roles.
- Stage 3: As roles reach maturity, the relationship attains a steady pattern of behavior. Leader-member/Instructor-learner exchanges are difficult to change.
The important key factor is to remember that the relationship is forged by behaviors that develop over time. The level of trust, and the freedom and range of communications are unique, and can be explained by the Leader-Member Exchange theories (Liden and Maslyn).
Robert C. Liden and John M. Maslyn's book, Multi-dimensionality of Leader-Member Exchange: An Empirical Assessment through Scale Development explores the process. Liden and Maslyn show how the leader/instructor can establish "partnerships" with a large number of followers. Each member in the partnership feels special, and the relationship the instructors establish is unique and it is responsive to the individual needs of that student.
Once a relationship has been solidified, it is very difficult to dismantle. It will be glued together by the power of expectations, past behaviors and interactions, and the expectation of continuity.
If you're a student, you're going to feel a strong bond with your instructor, and you'll trust her. If you have the chance to study with her, rather than other (and unknown) instructors, you'll do so. You want to keep the relationship going, and you appreciate the fact that when you interact with her, you do it one-on-one, and you feel acknowledged as a person, and affirmed as a valuable human being.
It's easy to overlook the value of the "warm fuzzies" and to not appreciate how one-on-one dyadic relationships between student and instructor make one feel better as a human being. But, in a situation that can be as potentially isolating as an online course, these can be of vital importance. Feeling a sense of belonging, and having a solid relationship can definitely be the difference between feeling alienated or being motivated and filled with an "I can do it" attitude.